A pop a day keeps boredom away!

Those of you who have been reading for a while may remember the last time I tried to make an ice pop with peanut butter. In short, it was a failure. I’d made the base too thick and possibly too high-fat (I mixed it with chocolate cream cheese), and the pops were too soft to unmold.

But I knew there must be a way to make peanut butter ice pops, I just had to find it. And while browsing my Zoku Ice Pops Book, I found one. Trouble is, that recipe is way too complicated for me, calling for several ingredients and requiring the mixture to be cooked and cooled before freezing. It turns out that the guiding principle behind my popmaking efforts is simplicity (or laziness), and so I wanted to make a recipe that wouldn’t require cooking.

Peanut butter, milk, sugar. You could also add a little salt to intensify the flavors. I didn't, but I think maybe I should have.

Though I didn’t follow Zoku’s recipe, I did use its basic ratios as a guideline. The recipe calls for a roughly 1:4 ratio of peanut butter to liquid, so that’s where I started. I used about a tablespoon of peanut butter, a tablespoon of sugar and a little more than 4 ounces of milk. I was worried about the peanut butter mixing into the milk, so I used my little food processor to make it all come together.

After I mixed that first version, I tasted it and decided there wasn’t enough flavor. I added another tablespoon of peanut butter and just under a tablespoon more of sugar. I think the peanut butter was the right call, but the final pops ended up too sweet. Next time, I’d stick to a heaping tablespoon of sugar.

For those trying to follow along at home, the recipe is now:
2 T peanut Butter
a generous 1/2 cup of milk
1 heaping tablespoon of sugar, or one tablespoon plus another teaspoon.

Blend together until the peanut butter is well incorporated, and freeze!

I will admit I was appregensive as I watched this pop freeze. I was almost convinced they’d get stuck in the Zoku, but thankfully they didn’t.

The pops tasted nice but as I mentioned above, somewhat too sweet. Overall, this recipe is a winner. It’s got everything I aim for in an ice pop recipe — quick and easy prep plus simple ingredients. And it will make a terrific base for all sorts of variations.